Tia Gordon, an 11-year-old girl, was misdiagnosed with sickness bugs and headaches by doctors around 30 times before being told she had a brain tumor.
Tia was brought to hospital as an emergency after multiple trips to GPs, A&E, and NHS 111, according to her mother, Imogen Darby, a pharmacist.
According to the Daily Mail, Tia’s glasses prescription was adjusted four times prior to the tumor being identified.Darby sought treatment for Tia’s migraines and vomiting for three years, but was told she would have to wait at least eight months for an MRI.
Tia’s health worsened and began to impair her balance and ability to walk, prompting an emergency MRI that revealed a 3.5cm brain tumor. Darby, from Northampton, stated, “I was told Tia had stomach bugs and migraines.” Because it being July, the first thing I was told was that she simply needed to hydrate herself.
“After about a year, she was diagnosed with migraines, and they prescribed paracetamol for her. She was also given more medication for it, and her final pediatric diagnosis in January of this year was migraine with illness.
“Over more than three years, I took Tia to doctors, she was refused MRIs, she was refused to be seen by emergency pediatrics, I called 111, I went to A&E, she had her glasses changed four times, she was given medication and she had a consultant, but it took for her to be unable to walk for her to get the care she needed.”
Darby became aware of Tia’s symptoms during the March 2020 Covid lockdown, which included regular bouts of illness. Initially occurring every few months, the incidents gradually increased to monthly occurrences before becoming more common.
Darby brought Tia to the doctor about ten times in the months before the diagnosis and called NHS 111 about three times about her problems.
“I took her to A&E and I was told she had a stomach bug and told kind of just leave her to it,” she recalled.
Tia developed additional complaints, including a stiff neck. Despite doctors attributing Tia’s stiff neck to her sleeping posture and referring her to a physiotherapist, Darby had a suspicion that something more serious was wrong with Tia’s neck position. This intuition was echoed by extended family members who witnessed the oddity.
“The consultant said she would do an MRI for peace of mind but the waiting list would be months long.”
Tia endured persistent morning sickness and everyday vomiting between November 2023 and January 2024. In the days before her hospital admission, she showed indicators of instability, such as spilling milk and holding her neck strangely.
Concerned, Tia’s school contacted Darby, who then visited a pediatrician and was recommended to take her to Northampton General Hospital that evening. Tia struggled to walk straight in the hospital.
A CT scan identified Tia’s tumor as a pilocytic astrocytoma, the most prevalent type of childhood brain tumor. She was evacuated by ambulance to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, where she underwent a 10-hour surgery to remove the benign tumor.
Darby characterized the surgery as “quite horrendous,” but physicians successfully removed 96% of the tumor. Tia, who jokingly refers to the tumor as her “astronaut tumor” due to its astrocytoma classification, has complained of weariness and occasional imbalance since the treatment.
Tia will have MRI scans every three months for the next five years and is presently having physiotherapy and regular visits with neurologists.
Despite her medical regimen, Tia is eager to return to her customary activities.